HOW CONSERVATIVES ENABLED A MONSTER

After listening to radio talk show hosts on Lou Dobbs last night, including Randi Rhodes of Air America Radio, I finally get it, thanks to the information presented on the show. The Bush Administration, probably encouraged by the likes of the Carlyle Group, is trying to merge the globe into a series of competitive corporate entities. No principles are involved here. It is all bottom line driven. You know, the hard, cold and cruel world of profit and loss where many work hard for little while a few profit immeasurably. The well-known and accepted model of the survival of the fittest will indeed prevail (except when the Bushies are pushing intelligent design to another group to manipulate them….) Well, never mind that for now.

It is appallingly obvious that nothing matters to the Bush & Co. folks except for money. Cheap labor is imported into the U.S. while our high tech, brainy and highly paid jobs are outsourced to countries that pay low wages. It is all about abolishing unions in exchange for the other extreme of slave labor. I think you get how the rest of the scenario will play out for we average Joes and Janes. Who would benefit from such an evildoing and heinous act? I think you know the answer to that.

If you are complacent it is time to become informed. Turn off the stupid and mind numbing idiot box of TV entertainment. If you are lazy, get off the couch and move your derriere to action. If you are not compelled to become involved for yourself, think about your children, grandchildren and the generations that will follow us. We owe it to them to protest and act. There will be hell to pay if we do nothing.

Any Democrat in office who is complicit with this cynical and destructive agenda needs to be fired on the spot along with Bush , Cheney & Co. The sooner the better for all of us in the lower 98 percentile of wealth. LS

MOVING ON TO OTHER ISSUES IN THE MISERABLE DOG DAYS OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION

"NOTES FOR CONVERTS"

Jane Smiley wrote an extensive, excoriating and sometimes humorous diatribe on conservatives who are presently outraged at and are consequently fleeing from Bush. Smiley admonishes the group, berating them for creating, enabling and empowering the Bush monster from whom they now they are trying to escape. Smiley asserts that the group is running away because it thinks Bush is a loser now, yet conservatives do not truly understand why he is losing. Smiley informs the pathetic conservatives that Bush is losing because the ideas they sanction are self-destructive, suicidal and immoral My sentiments exactly! I found this amazing piece on The Huffington Post. No one could have said it better than Smiley. LS

Excerpts:

President Bush is your creation. When the US Supreme Court humiliated itself in 2000 by handing the presidency to Bush even though two of the justices (Scalia and Thomas) had open conflicts of interest, you did not object. When the Bush administration adopted an "Anything but Clinton" policy that resulted in ignoring and dismissing all warnings of possible terrorist attacks on US soil, you went along with and made excuses for Bush. When the Bush administration allowed the corrupt Enron corporation to swindle California ratepayers and taxpayers in a last ditch effort to balance their books in 2001, you laughed at the Californians and ignored the links between Enron and the administration. When it was evident that the evidence for the war in Iraq was cooked and that State Department experts on the Middle East were not behind the war and so it was going to be run as an exercise in incompetence, you continued to attack those who were against the war in vicious terms and to defend policies that simply could not work. On intelligent design, global warming, doctoring of scientific results to reflect ideology, corporate tax giveaways, the K Street project, the illegal redistricting of Texas, torture at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib, the Terry Schiavo fiasco, and the cronyism that led to the destruction of New Orleans you have failed to speak out with integrity or honesty, preferring power to truth at every turn. Bush does what he wants because you have let him.

Your ideas and your policies have promoted selfishness, greed, short-term solutions, bullying, and pain for others. You have looked in the faces of children and denied the existence of a "common good". You have disdained and denied the idea of "altruism". At one time, our bureaucracy was full of people who had gone into government service or scientific research for altruistic reasons--I knew, because I knew some of them. You have driven them out and replaced them with vindictive ignoramuses. You have lied over and over about your motives, for example, making laws that hurt people and calling it "originalist interpretations of the Constitution" (conveniently ignoring the Ninth Amendment). You have increased the powers of corporations at the expense of every other sector in the nation and actively defied any sort of regulation that would require these corporations to treat our world with care and respect. You have made economic growth your deity, and in doing so, you have accelerated the power of the corporations to destroy the atmosphere, the oceans, the ice caps, the rainforests, and the climate. You have produced CEOs in charge of lots of resources and lots of people who have no more sense of reciprocity or connection or responsibility than George W. Bush.

JANE SMILEY PIECE ON THE HUFFINGTON POST

MOVING ON TO BUSH CRONYVILLE, FIXED JUDGES AND A MIDDLE INDEX FINGER POINTED AT OUR LEGAL SYSTEM

JUDGE FOR LIBBY CASE IS NOTHING MORE THAN AN APPOINTED BUSH HACK

According to Raw Story, a former FBI whistleblower files against judge (who happens to be trying the Libby case ) over secrecy issues. Remember Sibel Edmonds, a Middle Eastern language specialist for the FBI, hired after 9/11? Ms. Edmonds had discovered that the FBI had done shoddy work but of course she was fired after she reported the agency had dropped the ball on security and hence the U.S. became vulnerable to a 9/11 attack. The judge who threw out her case, based upon his interpretation of the government's state secrets privilege, is none other than the recently appointed judge in the Scooter Libby trial. Another slam dunk on corrupted cronyism for the Bush Administration. LS

RAW STORY ON FBI WHISTLEBLOWER FILING AGAINST JUDGE

GET USED TO LIVING IN MCCARTHYVILLE

EDITOR OF VERMONT PAPER FIRED FOR RUNNING DEMOCRAT'S COLUMN

I found this very disturbing yet not surprising piece on Raw Story.com

RAW STORY ON FIRED EDITOR

MOVING ON TO LIFE IN BUSH WORLD WITH NO SEPARATION BETWEEN CHURCH, POLITICS AND STATE

FEDERAL GRANTS GO TO BUSH ALLIES ON SOCIAL ISSUES

Grant awards have gone political under Bush. To make matters worse, the recipients are not required to comply with civil rights statutes and could therefore discriminate against certain groups. I found the appalling revelation, written by By Thomas B. Edsall of The Washington Post on Truthout.org

Excerpt:

In a Dec. 12, 2002, executive order, Bush addressed one of the major concerns of religious groups considering applying for public money. Bush declared that religious groups receiving federal grants would not be required to comply with certain civil rights statutes, and could discriminate by hiring employees of specific religious faiths.

Skepticism about the distribution of money under the religion-based initiatives abounds in both parties.

Rep. Mark Edward Souder (R-Ind.), chairman of the Government Reform subcommittee on criminal justice, drug policy and human resources, said the effort "has gone political."

"Quite frankly, part of the reason it went political is because we can't sell it unless we can show Republicans a political advantage to it, because it's not our base," he said, referring to the fact that many of those receiving social services are Democratic voters.

Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Tex.) was more outspoken. "I believe ultimately this will be seen as one of the largest patronage programs in American history," he said.

TRUTHOUT.ORG PIECE ON FEDERAL GRANTS

AND THEN THERE IS LIFE IN BUSH LIARSVILLE

ALL OF A SUDDEN WHITE HOUSE FOUND EMAILS RELEVANT TO LIBBY CASE.

Gee whiz. Anyone astounded? LS

Another great find on Truthout.org by Jason Leopold

Excerpt:

“In an abundance of caution,” Fitzgerald's January 23 letter to Libby's defense team states, “we advise you that we have learned that not all email of the Office of the Vice President and the Executive Office of the President for certain time periods in 2003 was preserved through the normal archiving process on the White House computer system.”

Sources close to the case said that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales withheld numerous emails from Fitzgerald’s probe citing “executive privilege” and “national security” concerns. These sources said that as of Friday there are still some emails that have not been turned over to Fitzgerald because they contain classified information in addition to references about the Wilsons.

TRUTHOUT.ORG ON WHITE HOUSE EMAIL IN LIBBY CASE

MAINSTREAM MEDIA IS ON TO BUSH'S RHETORICAL DECEPTION.

At least some of them are. But not all. LS

This is a wonderful piece posted by Frank James on the the Chicago Tribune.com via BUZZ FLASH.COM

Excerpt:

I've listened in Washington to many critics of the president's prosecution of the war on terror for several years now. Not once have I heard any of them minimize the threat represented by al Qaeda or its shadowy allies.

Serious critics ranging from Richard Clarke, the former White House counterterror official to former (and future) Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) have all ascribed to al Qaeda the same vast ambitions and strategic designs the president does.

Even Howard Dean, when he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2003, said: "I believe it is my patriotic duty to urge a different path to protecting America's security: To focus on al Qaeda, which is an imminent threat, and to use our resources to improve and strengthen the security and safety of our home front and our people while working with the other nations of the world to contain Saddam Hussein."

AS IF THE PIECES MENTIONED ABOVE AREN'T BAD ENOUGH, HERE IS SOMETHING EVEN MORE SERIOUSLY TROUBLING. IF TRUE, WE ARE SO FINANCIALLY SCREWED, THANKS TO THE MONSTERS IN CHIEF.

SAUDIS AND UAE CONSIDER SWITCHING OIL DOLLAR RESERVES TO EURO

I found this on Middle East Forex News.com via BUZZ FLASH.COM

MIDDLE EAST FOREX.COM PIECE ON SAUDI AND UAE DOLLAR RESERVES TO EURO